A West Virginia National Guard Special Forces soldier was put on administrative discharge in December after he and a former Army Special Forces soldier smuggled $1 million of cocaine from Colombia into the U.S on a military aircraft.
Sgt. 1st Class Henry Royer, 35, was discharged Dec. 7, U.S. Army Special Operations Command spokesman Lt. Col. Loren Bymer told the Army Times on Thursday.
Royer and 36-year-old former Master Sgt. Daniel Gould pleaded guilty on Dec. 21 to two federal counts of conspiracy to traffic cocaine, according to the Justice Department.
In early 2018, the two men concocted a plan for Royer to bring $9,800 cash on his personal trip to visit the retired Army soldier in Cali, Colombia.
Royer bought 22 pounds of cocaine, packaged it in a gutted punching bag, and flew it back to Florida on a U.S. military aircraft without being detected. He then sold the cocaine in northwest Florida and reinvested his profits to buy more cocaine from Colombia.
It was not until after his second trip that federal authorities at the Drug Enforcement Administration were tipped off.
In August, Gould and Royer — in the U.S. at the time — shipped $65,000 on a U.S. military cargo plane bound for Colombia. He would pick up the money package once back in Colombia, then buy 88 pounds of cocaine and ship the narcotics inside hollowed-out punching bags back to Florida.
However, an inspection of the punching bags at the U.S. embassy in Bogota revealed drugs inside the sporting equipment.
Gould faces 10 years to life in prison for each of the charges. His sentencing is scheduled for March 12.
